Le Mans 24 Hours 17th hour: Audi moves into 1-2-3-4 order
Audi now holds the top four positions in the Le Mans 24 Hours with seven hours to go after the flying Loic Duval moved the #3 ultra ahead of the #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota
The Audi e-trons still run one-two overall, with Andre Lotterer ending a very rapid stint of just over three hours to hand the #1 over to Marcel Fassler, while Tom Kristensen has taken the #2 over from Dindo Capello. Mike Rockenfeller holds third in the #4 ultra.
Duval's pursuit of the Rebellion Lola included a new fastest race lap of 3m25.671s, which he shaved another half a second off seven laps later as he put in a 3m25.165s, better than last year's benchmark.
The Rebellion cars still complete the top six ahead of the JRM entry.
Starworks continues to lead Pecom in LMP2, and Ferrari's GTE Pro one-two remains with AF Corse's #51 a lap clear of Luxury's #59. The Larbre Corvette is just under two minutes clear of the Imsa Porsche in GTE Am.
The most dramatic incident of the hour occurred just before its end, as Brian Vickers picked up a left front puncture on the AF-Waltrip Ferrari. By the time he had struggled back to the pits, a spectacular fire had taken hold at the front of the car. It was extinguished by pit crews before the car was wheeled into the garage.
NOTES
- Mucke damages the #97 Aston Martin in a crash at Indianapolis, dropping it away from GTE Pro leaders
- The #48 ORECA-Nissan driven by Brendon Hartley has retired after contact with the Status Lola
- Faisal spins the #75 Porsche at Porsche Curves, hitting the wall to bring the safety car out
- Marcel Fassler spins the #1 Audi e-tron at the Porsche curves, handing the lead to McNish
- Dumas tipped into a spin while passing traffic at Ford chicane
- Davidson confirms he sustained a broken back as a result of huge earlier crash
- Westbrook loses a wheel, and with it the lead of the GTE Pro class
- Peter Dumbreck suffers blow-out in the #22 JRM HPD
- Spin at Ford chicane for #21 Strakka HPD
- Problems for the #7 Toyota following collision with DeltaWing at the restart
- #29 Gulf Racing Lola B12 the first official retirement
- #40 hit with a two-minute stop and go penalty for second pitlane speeding offence
- 30s pit stop penalties for #40 and #49 LMP2s for speeding in pitlane
- Audi hits early niggles, with Tom Kristensen the third unexpected delay for the marque across its four cars
- Early GTE Pro scrap between Corvette, Aston Martin and Ferrari
- #99 Aston Martin Vantage suffers early misfire and then retires with damage
POSITIONS AFTER 17 HOURS Pos Car Drivers Class Laps Gap 1. #1 Audi Lotterer/Fassler/Treluyer LMP1 265 2. #2 Audi McNish/Capello/Kristensen LMP1 265 + 2m31.804s 3. #4 Audi Jarvis/Bonanomi/Rockenfeller LMP1 263 + 2 Laps 4. #3 Audi Gene/Dumas/Duval LMP1 256 + 9 Laps 5. #12 Lola Prost/Heidfeld/Jani LMP1 256 + 20.901s 6. #13 Lola Belicchi/Bleekemolen/Primat LMP1 251 + 14 Laps 7. #22 HPD Brabham/Dumbreck/Chandhok LMP1 248 + 17 Laps 8. #44 HPD Potolicchio/Dalziel/K-Smith LMP2 248 + 2m08.120s 9. #49 Oreca Perez Companc/Kaffer/Ayari LMP2 248 + 3m11.506s 10. #21 HPD Leventis/Kane/Watts LMP1 247 + 18 Laps 11. #26 Oreca Ragues/Panciatici/Rusinov LMP2 247 + 51.514s 12. #46 Oreca Thiriet/Beche/Tinseau LMP2 247 + 59.953s 13. #25 Oreca Martin/Charouz/Graves LMP2 245 + 20 Laps 14. #41 Zytek Zugel/Julian/Gonzalez LMP2 244 + 21 Laps 15. #33 HPD Tucker/Bouchut/Diaz LMP2 240 + 25 Laps 16. #35 Morgan H Hansson/Leinders/Martin LMP2 240 + 17m48.232s 17. #42 Zytek Brundle/Brundle/Ordonez LMP2 239 + 26 Laps 18. #45 Oreca Briere/Nakano/Petersen LMP2 239 + 8m03.358s 19. #51 Ferrari Fisichella/Bruni/Vilander GTEP 235 + 30 Laps 20. #23 Oreca Tresson/Mailleux/Lombard LMP2 235 + 3m57.209s 21. #59 Ferrari Makowiecki/Melo/Farnbacher GTEP 234 + 31 Laps 22. #97 Aston Mucke/Fernandez/Turner GTEP 231 + 34 Laps 23. #71 Ferrari Bertolini/Beretta/Cioci GTEP 231 + 1m31.978s 24. #38 Zytek Hancock/Dolan/Kurosawa LMP2 230 + 35 Laps 25. #50 Corvette Bornhauser/Canal/Lamy GTEA 230 + 1m27.290s 26. #67 Porsche Pons/Armindo/Narac GTEA 229 + 36 Laps 27. #73 Corvette Garcia/Magnussen/Taylor GTEP 228 + 37 Laps 28. #30 Lola Sims/Buurman/Iannetta LMP2 227 + 38 Laps 29. #57 Ferrari Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo GTEA 226 + 39 Laps 30. #88 Porsche Ried/Roda/Ruberti GTEA 222 + 43 Laps 31. #40 Oreca Frey/Hirschi/Meichtry LMP2 220 + 45 Laps 32. #70 Corvette Bourret/Gibon/Belloc GTEA 217 + 48 Laps 33. #79 Porsche Neiman/Pumpelly/Pilet GTEA 215 + 50 Laps 34. #55 Porsche Daniels/Palttala/Camathias GTEA 214 + 51 Laps 35. #43 Norma Rosier/Haezebrouck/Thirion LMP2 213 + 52 Laps 36. #61 Ferrari Kauffman/Aguas/Vickers GTEA 211 + 54 Laps 37. #74 Corvette Gavin/Westbrook/Milner GTEP 201 + 64 Laps 38. #83 Ferrari Rodrigues/Illiano/Ferte GTEA 198 + 67 Laps 39. #17 Dome Minassian/Bourdais/Ara LMP1 180 + 85 Laps 40. #15 OAK Montagny/Kraihamer/Baguette LMP1 219 + 46 Laps 41. #66 Ferrari Walker/Cocker/Wills GTEP 204 + 61 Laps 42. #48 Oreca Firth/Hartley/Hughes LMP2 196 + 69 Laps 43. #77 Porsche Lietz/Lieb/Henzler GTEP 184 + 81 Laps 44. #75 Porsche al Faisal/Curtis/Edwards GTEA 180 + 85 Laps 45. #31 Lola Holzer/Schultis/Moro LMP2 155 + 110 Laps 46. #58 Ferrari Ehret/Jeannette/Montecalvo GTEA 146 + 119 Laps 47. #24 Morgan Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla LMP2 139 + 126 Laps 48. #7 Toyota Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima LMP1 134 + 131 Laps 49. #80 Porsche Bergmeister/Long/Holzer GTEP 114 + 151 Laps 50. #28 Lola Giroix/Badey/Johansson LMP2 92 + 173 Laps 51. #8 Toyota Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin LMP1 82 + 183 Laps 52. #0 DeltaWing Franchitti/Krumm/Motoyama CDNT 75 + 190 Laps 53. #81 Ferrari Perazzini/Cadei/Griffin GTEA 70 + 195 Laps 54. #99 Aston Nygaard/Poulsen/Simonsen GTEA 31 + 234 Laps 55. #16 Pescarolo Collard/Bouillon/Hall LMP1 20 + 245 Laps 56. #29 Lola Ihara/Deletraz/Rostan LMP2 17 + 248 Laps
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